Newtownards, Co. Down

Newtownards (or Newtown Ards) Poor Law Union was formally declared on the 3rd September 1839 and covered an area of 146 square miles. Its operation was overseen by an elected Board of Guardians, 24 in number, representing its 16 electoral divisions as listed below (figures in brackets indicate numbers of Guardians if more than one):

The Board also included 8 ex-officio Guardians, making a total of 32. The Guardians met each week on Saturday at 11.30am.

The population falling within the Union at the 1831 census had been 53,873 with divisions ranging in size from Ballymaglaff (population 1,696) to Bangor (9,355) and Newtownards itself (5,668).

The new Newtownards Union workhouse was erected in 1840-1 on a 8.5-acre site at the west of Newtownards. Designed by the Poor Law Commissioners' architect George Wilkinson, the building was based on one of his standard plans to accommodate 600 inmates. Its construction cost £4,835 plus £1,035 for fittings etc. The workhouse was declared fit for the reception of paupers on 21st December 1841 and admitted its first inmates on 4th January 1842.

The workhouse site location and layout are shown on the 1932 OS map below.

During the famine in the mid-1840s, sheds and sleeping galleries were erected to accommodate an additional 200 inmates. A long single-storey block running between the main block and infirmary may have been part of the fever accommodation.